Synopsis

Mobilising 9.5 million pairs of eyes a day

CPNI has conducted extensive research into the mindset of terrorists and criminals and how they plan their malicious actions. This has resulted in a sound understanding of hostile reconnaissance, the vital information gathering phase that informs the attack plan and helps terrorists assess likelihood of success1. From this research CPNI has derived a general set of behaviours and activities that these malicious individuals show and undertake whilst conducting hostile reconnaissance at a site, that are possible for the public to spot.

However, the challenge facing CPNI was that very little research had been undertaken to understand how to mobilise the public. As a first step, CPNI developed and tested this set of behaviours/activities across a range of vigilance programmes for critical national infrastructure organisations2, policing initiatives3 and events such as V-Fest4.